A GROUP hoping that the theatre at Stanford Hall will be returned to public use are urging people to sign a petition to show their support for the project or warn it may never happen.

The historic hall is the subject of a planning application to turn it into a new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre.

A draft section 106 agreement that planning authority Rushcliffe Borough Council have drawn up in consultation with developers BS Stanford Ltd says that within 12 months of the site being inhabited, the owners look to renovate and open the 1937 built theatre.

SHUG (Stanford Hall Users Group) though have concerns about the agreement and are launching the petition to prove there is an audience for the theatre.

An e-mail sent out by the group states: “The applicants require proof of sufficient interest before they will fully restore the theatre to current modern standards and make it available for public performances.

“The will be sent to Rushcliffe Borough Council.”

SHUG’s Michael Dowdeswell told the Echo: “We are alarmed that the draft 106 agreement is so full of get out clauses. We feel it may never live.

“We have to take action to try to guard the need to fully restore the theatre in the first round as would be normally required of an owner of a grade 2* listed building.

“In the present proposals their renovation will stop short of the stage house. That would make the theatre unworkable as such.

“In addition we would obviously like to see the theatre open at suitable times for public performances as it had been for 50 years prior to 2004.

“Our aim is to see the full restoration for community benefit afforded by these much loved facilities.”

To sign the petition e-mail michael.dowdeswell@ntlworld.com or visit www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/rushcliffe-borough-council-development-control-protect-stanford-hall-theatre-and-wurlitzer-organ